Read Online Koban 6: Conflict and Empire by Stephen W. Bennett - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Stephen W. Bennett
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property that they could assimilate. The humans were mimicking the destructive pattern of the Krall, a technique that had so repelled and frightened the Thandol that they avoided allowing the Krall from learning the Empire existed. Humans were using the same blunt force methods.
Captain Halder was less than a third of the way to the Bridge when VC Candar reported the destruction of three of the enemy clanships via Decoherence hits. They had micro Jumped to where the Emperor’s Trumpets’ mass detectors could easily sense their internal mass concentrations. One was promptly disabled via the normal internal targeting of low mass voids within the target, and the other two required what were termed Adjacent Hits when there are no safe low-density internal voids detected. All three were rapidly disabled, and their crews presumably killed.
VC Candar, in a surprise to him, reported that his superior’s suspicion of a hidden twelfth human ship had just been confirmed. Their gravity based mass detectors had just found an unseen enemy ship, within the cluster of ships attacking the docks.
“We found the twelfth ship you predicted Sire, I’ve ordered it destroyed. There is an unusual anomaly, because it…” He was about to say that the anomaly was that the ship was invisible to their electromagnetic sensors. He never completed that report because a Nova II abruptly made an exit from Tachyon Space, emerging only partially inside the massive armored shell surrounding the Crusher’s Bridge, the remainder appearing mostly within a corridor leading to that central mass. Nevertheless, the Bridge and crew inside were instantly pulverized by the blast from one side.
The Nova’s launch from the Sneaky Bastard had been slightly off target, due to the disruptive internal pressure wave, caused by the near simultaneous arrival of a Decoherence bomb, ten decks higher. However, even off target, the explosion was adequate to destroy the central portion of the Crusher, although not powerful enough to break up the vast warship.
In the brief confusion of the mutual damage, the Bastard’s crew was able to recover, and micro Jumped themselves and the surviving drones to the other side of Meglor. On the Emperor’s Trumpet, Captain Halder struggled to establish contact with the Lieutenant, who was on duty in the Alternate Command Center.
That backup control room was a half-mile away from the Bridge, in one of the spires of the pyramidal shaped craft. The internal transport car carrying Halder had halted when the ship’s power had failed briefly, before the distributed computer circuits containing their main Artificial Intelligence, designated Ship Manager, reorganized power distribution from backup sources and rerouted command and control to the ACC. The Captain was finally able to get the AI to respond to his security codes, coming as they were amid thousands of other calls, from a seemingly insignificant transport car, located within the labyrinth web of the ship’s internal transport system.
“Ship Manager, the highest priority is to route my transport car to the ACC as quickly as possible, and connect me to whichever Lieutenant is on duty there today.” The never before used backup control center, at least never used in combat, was typically employed as a training assignment for young nobles rising in the ranks of Thandol naval officers. This untested young Thandol officer would have control of the most powerful class of ship in the Empire.
“Yes, Sire. I will have to route your car around the damage near the center of the ship. Fire suppression and damage repair crews have the central transportation tunnels blocked, and the central hub station is presumed destroyed by the explosion that occurred near the Bridge. It will take longer for you to reach the Alternate Command Center.”
Halder had previously thought the battle would be over before he reached the Bridge, and it nearly had been, with his ship the loser. Now he had another
Captain Halder was less than a third of the way to the Bridge when VC Candar reported the destruction of three of the enemy clanships via Decoherence hits. They had micro Jumped to where the Emperor’s Trumpets’ mass detectors could easily sense their internal mass concentrations. One was promptly disabled via the normal internal targeting of low mass voids within the target, and the other two required what were termed Adjacent Hits when there are no safe low-density internal voids detected. All three were rapidly disabled, and their crews presumably killed.
VC Candar, in a surprise to him, reported that his superior’s suspicion of a hidden twelfth human ship had just been confirmed. Their gravity based mass detectors had just found an unseen enemy ship, within the cluster of ships attacking the docks.
“We found the twelfth ship you predicted Sire, I’ve ordered it destroyed. There is an unusual anomaly, because it…” He was about to say that the anomaly was that the ship was invisible to their electromagnetic sensors. He never completed that report because a Nova II abruptly made an exit from Tachyon Space, emerging only partially inside the massive armored shell surrounding the Crusher’s Bridge, the remainder appearing mostly within a corridor leading to that central mass. Nevertheless, the Bridge and crew inside were instantly pulverized by the blast from one side.
The Nova’s launch from the Sneaky Bastard had been slightly off target, due to the disruptive internal pressure wave, caused by the near simultaneous arrival of a Decoherence bomb, ten decks higher. However, even off target, the explosion was adequate to destroy the central portion of the Crusher, although not powerful enough to break up the vast warship.
In the brief confusion of the mutual damage, the Bastard’s crew was able to recover, and micro Jumped themselves and the surviving drones to the other side of Meglor. On the Emperor’s Trumpet, Captain Halder struggled to establish contact with the Lieutenant, who was on duty in the Alternate Command Center.
That backup control room was a half-mile away from the Bridge, in one of the spires of the pyramidal shaped craft. The internal transport car carrying Halder had halted when the ship’s power had failed briefly, before the distributed computer circuits containing their main Artificial Intelligence, designated Ship Manager, reorganized power distribution from backup sources and rerouted command and control to the ACC. The Captain was finally able to get the AI to respond to his security codes, coming as they were amid thousands of other calls, from a seemingly insignificant transport car, located within the labyrinth web of the ship’s internal transport system.
“Ship Manager, the highest priority is to route my transport car to the ACC as quickly as possible, and connect me to whichever Lieutenant is on duty there today.” The never before used backup control center, at least never used in combat, was typically employed as a training assignment for young nobles rising in the ranks of Thandol naval officers. This untested young Thandol officer would have control of the most powerful class of ship in the Empire.
“Yes, Sire. I will have to route your car around the damage near the center of the ship. Fire suppression and damage repair crews have the central transportation tunnels blocked, and the central hub station is presumed destroyed by the explosion that occurred near the Bridge. It will take longer for you to reach the Alternate Command Center.”
Halder had previously thought the battle would be over before he reached the Bridge, and it nearly had been, with his ship the loser. Now he had another
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